Inexpensive Ohio falls lower in latest magazine state rankings

Although Ohio ranked low overall in the U.S. News and World Reports' 2018 Best States study, the state marked highly among some of the criteria's metrics.

The state's overall rank was 40th - down from 35th last year - out of the 50 states.

Among the eight main categories, the state's highest rank was crime and corrections at 18th, followed by infrastructure (23rd), opportunity (25th), economy (32nd), health care (36th), fiscal stability (37th), quality of life (40th) and education (41st).

Ohio ranked first in affordability and housing affordability, sub-metrics of the opportunity category.

"U.S. News & World Report is well-known for producing in-depth, data-driven rankings in education and health care that help people make key life decisions," said Eric Gertler, chairman of U.S. News & World Report, in a statement. "In evaluating the best states in the nation, we have combined trusted, high-quality data with the power of journalism to fill the current gap in local reporting, and ultimately to empower citizens, business leaders and policymakers to engage in improving their states."

Iowa was chosen as the best state overall, followed by Minnesota, Utah, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Washington, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Vermont and Colorado.

The top states were geographically and politically diverse, according to the study. Opportunity and access to high-quality health care helped Iowa secure its high ranking.

For the eight categories, Hawaii was the top state for health care, Colorado for the economy, Massachusetts for education, New Hampshire for opportunity, Iowa for infrastructure, Maine for crime and corrections, Utah for fiscal stability and North Dakota for quality of life.

The state ranked third in having the most top company headquarters per million residents. The state also ranked 10th both in adult wellness visits and liquidity.

On the other hand, the state faired worst in other sub-metrics and data points in the study.

Ohio ranked 50th in entrepreneurship, 49th in low industrial toxins, 48th in both natural environment and pension fund liability, 47th in child dental visits, 46th in low pollution health risk, 45th in both having a low smoking rate and its renewable energy usage, 44th in child wellness visits, 43rd in the racial employment gap and 42nd in both low food insecurity and employment.

Ohio's overall ranking places it right before the bottom 10. Kentucky ranked 41st, followed by South Carolina, Oklahoma, Alaska, Arkansas, Alabama, West Virginia, New Mexico, Mississippi and Louisiana.

McKinsey & Company's Leading States index provided 77 metrics and tens of thousands of data points to base the rankings. The company used two years of data from its citizen's experience survey that asked more than 30,000 people to prioritize each subject in their state and report how satisfied they were with government services.